this is bbc news. we will have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour straight after this programme. hello. you 0k? what is your name? jade? in your own time, what has happened is obviously traumatic but can you tell me what happened. yes. um, i was at a friend's birthday party. i went back with a bunch of friends... i rememberfalling asleep

and then i remember waking up and knowing that something had penetrated me. but i felt, like, violated. i...i felt really violated. do you feel like that potentially someone had intercourse with you in any way? yes. i would say that i could feel physically that something had... has taken place? yeah. it's jade, wasn't it? jade, yeah. right, what we're going to have to do now, jade, is we have to go through... report this as what we call rape.

isabelle is my best friend. she has been with me kind of through absolutely everything. yeah, growing up, we were... ..inseparable. i don't know. she always brings out the best in me, i think. she's just genuinely bloody lush. jade is, like, a very confident person. she has a super strong moral compass. she's really funny. yeah, we're basically sisters. so, i mean, there were some pictures that... ..me and belle had taken at the night. it feels really weird, actually, looking back and just thinking my whole life was literally turned upside—down after that moment. on that evening, i went to isabelle's house. it was a sunday. we decided that we would literally just show our faces at this party. we went to the bar, got ourselves a bottle of prosecco to share and we were kind of mingling and chatting in groups. so we were there until the end of service and i think belle then decided she was going to go home. she was quite tired.

i was still in a bit of a mood to party, if i was completely honest. she was tipsy, we were both tipsy, but she was, like, totally in control and happy and bubbly and, you know, just wanted to chat with friends. that's how we left. i left her with herfriends. ijust remember walking back up here with them. the flat was literally just over here, just to the side of us. music plays we got back to the house for the kind of afterparty. it was literally four or five people. it wasn't, like, a huge thing. aftera while, um... ..i was quite tired. people were still listening to music, smoking and having a few drinks, but i fell asleep. and then i woke up. and ifelt... ..as if i'd been penetrated.

i couldn't. .. ..tell you what it was. i had no idea. but i kind of looked down and my trousers were off, my underwear, my bra was unpinged and my necklace was broken. i turned around and i could see, um... ..him on the other side of the sofa. i kind of got a bit aggressive and shouty and kind of confronted him. and he said, like, something... ..a bit odd, i guess, but he did say, "i thought you were awake," and he kind ofjust, like, bolted out, basically. and i got my phone and started calling isabelle. she was hysterical. and sobbing. um... and she said... .."i think i've been raped."

when your best friend and your sister... ..says that to you, it's just... ..earth—shattering. so ijumped out of bed... ..and tried to calm her down. and she wasjust... ..hysterical, sobbing, and she...threw up. i was on the phone the whole time with her, trying to tell her that... ..she was safe and she was ok. that it wasn't her fault. um... and how many minutes it was going to be until she got to my house. sorry.

for me, itjust feels like an absolute blur coming out of here. it was an absolute blur coming out until i got to your house and you literally just, like, held me. whispering: i'm so proud of you. | jade $055 i said... ..you know, "we should call the police." she said, "yes. go and make the call." and i made the call. yeah, that was super brave, super, super brave... ..to make that decision. thank you for coming with me. you don't have to thank me. you never have to thank me.

telephone rings i received a call yesterday from an officer and it basically stated that i needed to be at a police station for a meeting. i don't even know what they can possibly say so late on in the day.

jade sighs it's been dropped. my case has been dropped. and it's a matter of days before the trial is due to start and it's... nothing's happening.

and for me, the reasonings behind it... ..i can't really make head nor tail of it, to be honest. she sighs just mad. and it's heartbreaking. so i've just received my hand—delivered... ..letter, basically summarising the meeting i had with the cps, where they essentially

dropped my case. hand—delivered by a police officer and it's a sleep specialist, concluded that the defence statement is "consistent with an attack of sexsomnia". "he also confirmed that even if you had never previously had an episode "of sexsomnia, that this could have been the first episode." what is sexsomnia ? i've never had anything remotely similar to this kind of thing. like, this isjust bizarre. i can continue to fight this and challenge the cps�* decision. i really feel as if they've missed the mark and not investigated this enough.

as a victim, i have the right to demand that the cps review their decision. if i'm going to win this appeal, i need to work out for myself how this idea of sexsomnia all started. so i've got the footage of my original police interview. the cps informed me when they dropped my case it was down to, like, a history of sleepwalking and sleep talking that i'd kind of touched upon in this video statement. so i kind of wanted to see exactly kind of where things went wrong. where has this kind of notion of sexsomnia and sleep issues come from? it basically traces back to my first formal interview with the police. this would have been a couple of weeks after the incident. i do kind of have some, like, haze cos it was such a long time ago now. it's quite weird to see myself... ..in that kind of really

vulnerable, vulnerable place. so just to clarify, from the point of falling asleep and to the point of waking up on that sofa, there's nothing that you can recall? no. you don't know how your clothing's come off... literally... ..and how your bra strap�*s unpinged. in regards to your sort of sleeping and stuff like that, what sort of a sleeper are you? a bloody deep sleeper. a deep sleeper? i went to france with my mother a few years ago and there was a fire alarm at, like, three in the morning. for the life of me, she was shaking me to wake me up. 0k. ihave, like... i don't know, i sleep talk and i sleep walk, and i'm very much a deep sleeper and i have no recollec. .. like, my partner, when i'm... i snore, like, a terrible snorer as well, but i sleep talk and i have no recollection. like, he will remember a conversation that he had with me while i was sleeping. i would have no recollection of it, he'd be like,

i'm like, "shut up, jade." like, "don't say anything else." like, why...? like... it's just mad frustrating cos it could be the smallest, smallest thing that can completely crumble everything around you in this case, or in any case. if i'm going to prove the cps should have taken my case to court, i need all the evidence i can get. the sleep clinic i visited agreed to run some tests, and tonight's the night. she laughs oh, god. i don't even know what to say. i'm so not sleepy now.

i've been told that most people with sexsomnia are men who have repeated episodes, but that's not me. ifeel like i need to hear first—hand from someone who actually does have sexsomnia. i have found people posting anonymously about having it. "do i have sexsomnia?" "my boyfriend has sexsomnia." "sexsomnia — how to deal with it in a relationship." i really do want to speak to somebody that does have it, and a guy has agreed to meet me. he says that he didn't know he had sexsomnia until his girlfriend told him. so, during an episode, i do act differently. i'm quite uncoordinated, i'm quite dead—eyed and glassy—eyed. i'm not very talkative. and that's how we know that it's not me. i'm sleep... having...

having sex in my sleep. if she wakes up and doesn't want that, isn't happy with it, then she can pull my hand away or push me away really easily, and then i stop. but i would have zero recollection of that happening whatsoever. i wouldn't know that happened unless she told me the next morning. and i've asked her to tell me any time that there is an episode so that i can check in with her, make sure she's ok with it. it was very confusing at first because i couldn't work out why my body was doing things that it wouldn't do in real life. and it was... there were times where i was scared and a bit worried about, would i do something that really hurts me or, more importantly, would i do something that really hurt someone else? it is not my mind, it's not who i am as a person. it's my body. and my body is involuntarily doing something to someone else. if i could take a pill that would get rid of sexsomnia, i'd do it straight away. i really want to

thank you for today. it's really been so eye—opening to have your perspective on all of this. i'm so glad. i'm really glad that i could help. it kind ofjust shines a light to me that this is something that is real and it's something that should be taken seriously. hearing what he experiences on a regular basis — this, like, repeated pattern of these episodes — kind of really contradicts everything that i've kind of read about myself. for me, i think itjust... i know deep down that i don't suffer from this. how can i prove that i don't? my sleep tests have been analysed and i'm on my way to get the results. two sleep experts have already said it's possible i had an attack of sexsomnia, so i'm feeling nervous about what i might hear. we're now here to talk about your results. one thing we have found is that you've got mild sleep apnoea. but you also have a lot of snoring in your sleep. the fact that you've got sleep apnoea will point towards you having a trigger factor for sexsomnia.

so, could it be one isolated episode in a quiet storm of events? yes. can we completely rule it out? the answer is no. there's no history of sexsomnia and there's no clinical history of sexsomnia. can you give me, like, an idea of the probability that that happened ? that is the billion dollar question. we can't. so there is a shortage of proper scientific study in this, right? so we cannot give a definitive probability. that would be misleading. one thing, a definitive black and white answer, yes or no, was it or wasn't it, is not going to happen because no—one knows exactly what happened that night. i have been looking back at previous rape cases, and sexsomnia has become increasingly more common as a line of defence in the last ten years. there are lots of lawyers out there trying to get business out of it. that's why. .. indeed. ..i don't do many cases any longer. do you ever worry that... you get it wrong? we're not getting it right or wrong.

what we're saying is, "this is the body of evidence for this. "this is the body of evidence against it." it's for the juries to get it right and wrong. just a shame it never got that far cos of the cps! exactly. meanwhile, i've been researching as much as i can. i found some rape cases where the defendant claimed to have sexsomnia. so i've been looking online and actually, like, come across actual websites of solicitors, with, like, dedicated web pages to the defence, sexsomnia. so, on this website, there is, like, a dedicated web page, which is... the title is, "sexsomnia defence successful." client was found not guilty. ifind it, like, really, really troubling. i'm going to meet a barrister who's defended in two sexsomnia trials. i want to know if some lawyers are potentially manipulating this defence.

essentially, i do have concerns for, um, people perhaps misusing sexsomnia. .. yes. ..as a line of defence. i mean, i have seen it, kind of, almost glorified and advertised on some solicitors' websites as an almost get out ofjailfree card. do you think that that kind of line of defence is being kind of abused within the system? i think you're right. there are certain firms of solicitors that are advertising their... their expertise in this particular area. but i would like to think that most lawyers behave in a more reputable way and properly explore issues that they should be exploring as part of their duty to their...to their client. from my experience of sleep experts, i haven't really been given, like, a definitive diagnosis. it's always merely a possibility. yes. i don't think you will ever get a sleep expert, or indeed

any other expert in this area, that will say, um, you know, "this is a clear—cut case of sexsomnia." sometimes they will say it's—it's fairly neutral. you know, "it's very difficult. it's possible." all right, it's possible. from a defence point of view, possible is—is perhaps enough. one of the things that i will sometimes say to a jury, and it's a very fundamental part of our system that if the prosecution bring a case, they really have to prove it and they have to prove it so a jury is sure, because that's the safeguard. you hope that that process, that criminal trial process, will enable those genuine cases to be pulled out from those less genuine. but is there a guarantee that that will always happen? i'm afraid there isn't. it seems like the sexsomnia defence could definitely be

open to manipulation. but the barrister told me that the courtroom is where that should bejudged. it still feels unjust that my case never made it that far. i have one final chance to question the cps lawyers who decided to drop my case before i submit my appeal. they didn't want to go on camera, but they've agreed to speak to me. hey. good morning. i'll start with, like, some sleep specialist—related questions. it's not a clear diagnosis. how can that mere suggestion be enough to close an entire rape case that you guys have invested a lot of time and money in? shouldn't have this been put to a jury to decide, rather than being ultimately decided by the people in this meeting? and ifelt like, if you guys did everything you guys could do, i would have felt at least, "ok, these guys have done theirjob. "i'm happy with that. "i feel proud that our criminal justice system "has done as much as they can." but i don't feel like that has

happened in this case. i don't think it was challenged enough. take care. bye— bye. they kind of really stuck to their guns when it came to, "this was our case theory. "this undermined our case theory, end of." my mood now is that i'm completely fired up and ready to take everything on, so i'm going to be putting forward my victim's right to review. kind of show to them that i'm not going down quietly about this. after all the people i've spoken to and everything i've learnt, i'm ready to submit my appeal. the cps will now look over everything in my case again. it's been a difficult few months, waiting for the result. i've, um... i've had my decision from the victim's right to review and the chief crown prosecutor

that has reviewed... ..my case has, um, pretty outrightly said that he doesn't agree with the decision of it being closed and marked as "no evidence", and that it should have been seen in front of a jury. i just can't believe that... ..they. .. ..they�*ve acknowledged it.

it's hard to accept, but i've been told there's just no way forward for my case. because it was closed completely, the law says it cannot be reopened. i know now that i'll never have my day in court. there's no hope of any...any justice for what happened to me. it is soul destroying, it is soul destroying, to it is soul destroying, to be it is soul destroying, to be let down by a system that is there to protect. i'd just feel like change is needed.

hello there. our weather story is becoming a little bit more unsettled

as we head towards the weekend. no two days the same at the moment, not only in terms of weather, but also the feel of things, both by day and night. now, for thursday, many of us will see some sunny spells, but there will be blustery, squally showers developing in the far north—west. over the next few hours, we'll start to see this weather front easing away from channel coasts. it mightjust continue to bring a little bit of early—morning rain on thursday. look at the temperatures — double digits because of the cloud and the rain around. further north, though, it's going to be a chilly start, with a touch of light frost in rural parts. but as we go through the day, there will be a good slice of dry and sunny weather to look out for for most of us. into the afternoon, however, the winds will strengthen, we'll see some squally showers developing into northern ireland and north—west scotland in particular. elsewhere, temperatures pretty similar to the last few days by the middle of the afternoon. we're looking at highs of 11—17 celsius — that's 63 fahrenheit.

now, that weather front will continue to move its way steadily south and east, weakening all the time. it's going to be replaced by another one moving through scotland and northern ireland as well. at the same time, there's the potentialfor a little bit of showery rain once again, just clinging on to channel coasts first thing on friday. sandwiched in between the two, we should see some drier, brighter interludes, and behind, it's going to be bright and breezy with showers. so, friday's a really messy story, a real autumnal picture of blustery showers. warm in the sunshine still, with 17 degrees the high. now, low pressure never too far away as we head into the weekend. plenty of isobars, particularly the further north you go. gusts of wind, 40—50 mph, and they're going to be driving weather fronts in around those areas of low pressure. so, saturday is going to be a case of sunny spells and squally showers, the showers most frequent out towards the west, but some of those will start to push a little bit further inland as the day continues. favoured spots for the best of the drier weather, parts of aberdeenshire and perhaps through south—east england as well. and here, we'll see highs again of around 11—17 celsius.

not much change as we go into sunday and monday. the winds stay blustery from a warm source, plenty of showers to dodge as well. take care.

this is bbc world news. i'm rich preston. our top stories: a jury orders the conspiracy theorist alexjones to pay more than $900 million to the families of the victims of the sandy hook massacre. urgent action is required to reverse biodiversity destruction. that's the stark warning from the world wide fund for nature after wildlife populations decline by almost 70% in 50 years. the un general assembly votes overwhelmingly to condemn russia's attempts to annex four ukrainian regions. the us is promising more weapons for ukraine — including air defence systems. we are going to do everything we can as fast as we can to

help the ukrainian forces get